Rafael Nadal cruised through his second-round at the Rio de Janeiro on Thursday afternoon, beating fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro 6-3, 7-5. Nadal converted an outstanding four of five break-point opportunities before prevailing in one hour and 40 minutes.
The world No. 5 used one break in the first set to give himself a chance to serve it out at 5-3. He promptly fell into a 0-40 hole but won five consecutive points to seal the deal. A huge problem of late for Nadal, however, has been a failure to consolidate service breaks. It plagued him again in this one, as he twice got broken back immediately at 4-3 and 5-4 in the second set. A third consecutive scalp of the Almagro serve gave Nadal one more chance at 6-5 and this time he made no mistake.
“I’m feeling better physically,” he said, comparing his current state to that of last week in Buenos Aires. “Last week I had a little problem with my stomach during the whole week, and with the humidity–it was unbelievable. I felt so bad physically. Here I’m feeling much better because the stomach is much better. That’s the key on the improvement of my game, and victory helps.”
Nadal hot shot:
Nadal interview:
David Ferrer joined Nadal in the quarters by overcoming Albert Ramos-Vinolas 4-6, 6-1, 6-4. The competition level will go even higher for Ferrer as he is set to face an on-fire Dominic Thiem on Friday. Thiem upset Nadal in the Buenos Aires semifinals last week before the 22-year-old Austrian outlasted Almagro (also in a third-set tiebreaker) for the title.
“He’s a very great player,” Ferrer said. “He’s young. He’s playing with confidence. He’s going to be a top player, for sure. I like his game and tomorrow is going to be tough I know. I’ll have to play my best tennis for a win.”
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needs to stop giving back damn breaks
Gifting is more appropriate word…usually his opponents do not need to play any better, Rafa gifts them with his terrible UEs…that’s what hurts…
Rafa in 3 and ferrer in 3